League of Fans

By Dave Zirin

Anybody got $500 million collecting dust under the couch? If you live in Chicago, take a second look between those cushions. The United States Olympic Committee (USOC) has let it be known that the people of the Windy City could pay out as much as $500 million if they are awarded the 2016 Summer Games.

By Dave Zirin

There are more books about Muhammad Ali than Abe Lincoln: 300 titles in the children’s section alone. You can also purchase The Muhammad Ali Reader, the Tao of Muhammad Ali, or the $10,000 G.O.A.T. – a massive coffee table book about all things Ali that is slightly larger than a typical coffee table. His is a history that has been repeatedly regurgitated for popular consumption. Despite – or maybe because of – this crisis of Ali overproduction, I felt compelled to write The Muhammad Ali Handbook.

Media Advisory

“Build It and They Will Come: Do Taxpayer-Financed Sports Stadiums, Convention Centers and Hotels Deliver as Promised for America’s Cities?”

Domestic Policy Subcommittee, Oversight and Government Reform Committee

This hearing will examine the promises of economic prosperity that are made to cities which finance professional sports stadiums, convention centers and hotels.

LeBron James
Cleveland Cavaliers

Dear Mr. James:

Congratulations on your continued success as one of the NBA’s elite players. Perhaps basketball fans across the world will be able to watch you and the Cavs in the Finals very soon.

As someone who participates in many generous charitable activities, we hope you will be responsive to this appeal.

By Dave Zirin

Bowie Kuhn, baseball’s fifth commissioner, passed away last night at the age of 80. I never met the man. In private, he may have made Gandhi look like Ted Nugent. For all we know, he spent weekends warming terminally ill puppies against his sweet perfumed bosom. But when it comes to his 15-year reign as commissioner, from 1969-1984, it is more than appropriate to bury Mr. Kuhn, not praise him. Major League Baseball’s website, in their Selig-sanctioned obituary, claims that Bowie Kuhn “presided over the dawn of free agency and the end of the reserve system.” [The reserve system bound a player to their team for life.] That’s sort of like saying the Czar Nicholas II “presided over” the Russian Revolution.

In a column for the Huffington Post, writer Leanne Shear makes an impassioned argument as to the benefits of Title IX and defends the civil rights law from critics who say it helps women to the detriment of men. She includes a discussion with women’s rights activist and tennis legend Billie Jean King as to what Title IX has accomplished and why it is still under attack. Following is an excerpt:

By Dave Zirin

(Note to Reader: Over the last decade, Jason Whitlock has been one of the most prominent African American sports columnists in the United States. He writes for the Kansas City Star and AOL Sports. For reasons unclear, he often refers to himself as “Big Sexy”)

Dear Jason,

I start with long overdue thanks. Thanks for inspiring me to be a sportswriter. Thanks for showing all of us that the sports page could be more than blather and box scores. For that you have my sincere gratitude.

By Dave Zirin

JOHN AMAECHI, to much fanfare, has become the first retired player in the history of the National Basketball Assn. to announce that he’s gay. The news came with publication of his book “Man in the Middle,” in which Amaechi details his life in the NBA closet. The five-year veteran of three clubs used to be a basketball footnote, more known for his British upbringing and penchant for poetry than anything he did on the court as a center. Now he is part of history, giving human form and voice to the spectral boogeyman of the professional locker room – the gay athlete.

By Dave Zirin

There are those in the world of sports who view ESPN as some sort of diabolical genetic splicing of the Illuminati, George Bush and something scraped from Chris Berman’s loofah. (I personally believe that, not unlike the Bush family, ESPN’s power, while disturbing, is vastly overestimated.) This view is being reasserted with the news that former NBA player John Amaechi has loudly and proudly let the world know that he is gay.

(from the March 29 Domestic Policy Subcommittee, Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearing: “Build It and They Will Come: Do Taxpayer-Financed Sports Stadiums … Deliver as Promised for America’s Cities?”)

Witness Testimony:

Mr. Neil deMause, author of Field of Schemes: How the Great Stadium Swindle Turns Public Money Into Private Profit

Mr. Frank Rashid, waged an unsuccessful 10-year campaign to save Tigers’ Stadium in Detroit.